What is the Air Quality Health Index?
The Air Quality Health Index or “AQHI” is a tool to help protect your health. Using a scale from 1 to 10 and the words low, moderate, high, and very high, it measures current levels of outdoor air pollution and related health risk. It can help you decide when it is safe to be active outside, especially if you have a health condition such as lung or heart disease.
The AQHI informs both the general population and those at higher risk from air pollution-seniors, those with heart or lung disease, children, and people physically active outdoors. Click to learn more about populations at greater risk from air pollution.
Want to learn more about health effects, who is at risk, and useful health tips? Click www.airhealth.ca
What we measure
We measure three air pollutants to calculate the AQHI:
- ground-level ozone (O3)
- particulate matter (PM2.5)
- nitrogen dioxide (NO2)
The AQHI measures the three above air pollutants as a mixture in relation to short-term human health risk. Get more information.